winter goes on, mulled wine, dark bread and borscht

2-17--23-2025

DINNERS --- baked Japanese sweet potato fries | warm mulled wine | whole wheat sourdough bread | borscht with sour cream| simmered Japanese pumpkin | sauteed Chinese long beans | scrambled eggs | fried rice with chives and bean curd | silk gourd and okra soup with mountain yam noddles  and tofu skin rolls | steamed shao-mai | pan fried  lotus root slices | shabu-shabu lamb slices,   fish balls, mushrooms, tofu and leafy vegetables | tiramisu  

spices in making mulled wine and borscht soup  

Eclipse, osyter, and real deal borscht

8-21-2017 Mon.  


LUNCH --- ( at Taylor Shellfish , Seattle )  oysters | beer 
DINNER --- guacamole | cucumber and tomato salad | open face sandwich with pastrami and sauekraut | borscht

• authentic borscht by Russian home cooking, bones, beets and everything.

Russian soup and bread

9-16-2012 Sun. warm, clouds.  


WEEKEND BREAKFAST --- coffee | bread and jam | Gouda cheese | grapes 
AFTERNOON-TEATIME ---  simmered fresh peanuts in shell with Chinese spiced rice wine DINNER --- borscht ( beef, beets, tomato, potatoes, cabbage, onion, carrots, and herbs) | Russian black bread | stir-fried bitter melon | rice | fennel and cherry tomato salad | wine 

fresh peanuts

 Borscht and black bread

in garden today

 

• several hours spent on the bloody Russian stew soup, which turned out pretty well. 
• fresh peanuts in shell are rare find. slow-simmered peanuts in spiced wine is a Shanghai style snack food for drinking.
• some  garden work, see the fall coming

Red on red

1-31-2011 Mon. cold, cloudy.


BREAKFAST --- coffee
LUNCH --- steamed vegetable buns | kumquats
AFTERNOON-TEATIME --- Japanese green tea
DINNER --- lotus root sandwich tempura | borscht ( Russian red soup: oxtail and beef broth with beet, red cabbage,tomato, potato, green onion, mushroom ) | homemade bread | pan-fried scallion flat bread | red wine

• borscht is full body ( from beef bone marrow ), and full color ( red from beet, red cabbage, and tomato)
  

Borscht, in 1920's Shanghai version

1-11-2011 Tue. cold, cloudy, light snow


BREAKFAST --- coffee
LUNCH --- pizza with toppings of shiitake and sweet onion | clementine
AFTERNOON-TEATIME --- Japanese green tea | apple
DINNER --- Russian soup of Shanghai variation ( beef broth from beef bone with marrow, cabbage, onion, tomato, lotus root and bamboo shoots ) | pan-fried pork chop | steamed and pan-fried Brussels sprouts | rice | wine

• Borscht (Russian red soup ) was brought to Shanghai by Russian refugees after the 1917 Russian Revolution. variations happened over time where beets were hard to find locally, tomatoes and tomato paste were added in to provide the red color, and the sweet sour flavors. the Chinese version of Russian red soup (罗宋红汤）is still popular in Shanghai today.